Oceanographic drivers of deep ocean predator-prey dynamics

Deep-ocean predators depend on patchy prey resources embedded within a poorly understood physical environment, making it difficult to determine how oceanographic variability structures prey fields and shapes predator behavior at bathypelagic depths. Using goose-beaked whales in the Southern California Bight as a case study, I will synthesize recent work combining a variety of autonomous observations, including hydrography, active acoustics, eDNA, long-term passive acoustics and 3D acoustic tracking, to examine how basin structure, water-mass variability, internal waves, flushing events, and mesoscale flow shape prey fields and predator habitat use. I will highlight evidence that fine-scale oceanographic processes influence bathypelagic prey availability, whale presence, and coordinated foraging behavior. I will also present new results and ongoing work from deep-sea camera deployments to further active acoustic target classification, and emerging near real-time passive acoustic monitoring approaches. These efforts show how integrated observing systems can reveal predator-prey dynamics in the deep ocean and improve our understanding of vulnerable ecosystems facing environmental change and human disturbance.

Speaker: Simone Baumann-Pickering, Marine Physical Laboratory

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